“No man entreth in or out”
-
Judith Huber
Abstract
English motion verbs typically encode the manner of motion (e.g. run, walk, cf. e.g. Talmy 2000: 27, Slobin 2004). This raises the question of how French- and Latin-borrowed motion-verbs such as enter, descend, that express the path of motion and therefore are typologically ‘unsuitable’ for English, are integrated into this language. Based on a detailed analysis of the occurrences of enter in PPCME2 and CEECS, and drawing on ideas from studies in second language acquisition and cognitive linguistics, it will be shown that on the one hand, enter has a strong tendency to be used non-literally, i.e. for situations where the figure or goal are not concrete or visually perceivable; in its literal uses, on the other hand, it will be argued to bear additional manner-meaning. Both findings can be explained by the verb being a semantic misfit among English motion verbs. Similar usage patterns will be shown to apply to other borrowed path-verbs.
Abstract
English motion verbs typically encode the manner of motion (e.g. run, walk, cf. e.g. Talmy 2000: 27, Slobin 2004). This raises the question of how French- and Latin-borrowed motion-verbs such as enter, descend, that express the path of motion and therefore are typologically ‘unsuitable’ for English, are integrated into this language. Based on a detailed analysis of the occurrences of enter in PPCME2 and CEECS, and drawing on ideas from studies in second language acquisition and cognitive linguistics, it will be shown that on the one hand, enter has a strong tendency to be used non-literally, i.e. for situations where the figure or goal are not concrete or visually perceivable; in its literal uses, on the other hand, it will be argued to bear additional manner-meaning. Both findings can be explained by the verb being a semantic misfit among English motion verbs. Similar usage patterns will be shown to apply to other borrowed path-verbs.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
- Norse influence on English in the light of general contact linguistics 15
- The Germanic roots of the Old English sound system 43
- Monetary policy and Old English dialects 73
- The order and schedule of nominal plural formation transfer in three Southern dialects of Early Middle English 95
- The temporal and regional contexts of the numeral ‘two’ in Middle English 115
- Grammaticalisation, contact and corpora 131
- Discourse organization and the rise of final then in the history of English 153
- The origins of how come and what…for 177
- “Providing/provided that” 197
- Prefer 215
- The 400 million word Corpus of Historical American English (1810–2009) 231
- Gender change from Old to Middle English 263
- “Please tilt me-ward by return of post” 289
- Multilingualism in the vocabulary of dress and textiles in late medieval Britain 313
- “No man entreth in or out” 327
- Beyond questions and answers 349
- The demise of gog and cock and their phraseologies in dramatic discourse 369
- Index 383
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
- Norse influence on English in the light of general contact linguistics 15
- The Germanic roots of the Old English sound system 43
- Monetary policy and Old English dialects 73
- The order and schedule of nominal plural formation transfer in three Southern dialects of Early Middle English 95
- The temporal and regional contexts of the numeral ‘two’ in Middle English 115
- Grammaticalisation, contact and corpora 131
- Discourse organization and the rise of final then in the history of English 153
- The origins of how come and what…for 177
- “Providing/provided that” 197
- Prefer 215
- The 400 million word Corpus of Historical American English (1810–2009) 231
- Gender change from Old to Middle English 263
- “Please tilt me-ward by return of post” 289
- Multilingualism in the vocabulary of dress and textiles in late medieval Britain 313
- “No man entreth in or out” 327
- Beyond questions and answers 349
- The demise of gog and cock and their phraseologies in dramatic discourse 369
- Index 383
